Wizdom
25-09-04, 19:32
Fighting, insurgent attacks intense in Iraq
U.S. military announces deaths of 4 Marines, 1 soldier
Saturday, September 25, 2004 Posted: 1647 GMT (0047 HKT)
Residents stand among the ruins of houses in Falluja.
Image:
VIDEO
English city calls for mercy for hostage.
PLAY VIDEO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNN's Aaron Brown on insurgents and kidnappers.
PLAY VIDEO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For U.S. troops, strategy is simple: do their job, stay alive.
PLAY VIDEO
RELATED
Interactive: Quotes from Allawi address to Congress
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Hostage's brother accuses U.S.
• U.S. hostage confirmed killed
• Gallery: Beheadings as a tactic
• Q&A: War crippling Iraq's rebirth
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Should elections still go ahead in Iraq if they only cover three-quarters or four-fifths of the country?
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SPECIAL REPORT
• Inside Iraq
• U.S. Reaction
• Global Impact
• CNN/Money: Rebuilding Iraq
• War in Iraq
• Special Report
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least nine Iraqis and five U.S. troops died in fighting and attacks by insurgents across Iraq, the U.S. and Iraqi military said Saturday, as hospitals counted the dead and U.S. warplanes hit targets in Falluja.
Four Marines, from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were killed Friday in three separate incidents while "conducting security and stability operations," in al Anbar province, which includes Falluja, the U.S. military announced Saturday.
Officials in Falluja counted at least seven dead and 12 wounded Iraqis brought to hospitals overnight, with reports of civilian casualties, including women and children.
U.S. warplanes on Saturday attacked targets in that city, which the U.S. military considers the center of a terrorist network and where clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents are frequent.
U.S. forces have been fighting suspected members of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network in Falluja, and warplanes targeted "a known terrorist meeting site," the U.S. military said.
On Saturday, insurgents attacked a van carrying new Iraqi National Guard recruits in western Baghdad. Seven recruits were killed and four recruits and an unknown number of civilians were wounded.
Witnesses said the attackers threw two hand grenades at the van and then shot at it with small arms.
Also, an improvised explosive device killed a Task Force Baghdad soldier in the capital on Saturday.
In Baghdad Friday, police reported an officer with the Iraqi Central Intelligence Service was assassinated after gunmen ambushed the officer's car in western Baghdad.
Before leaving the scene, the gunmen spray-painted a message on their target's car: "This is the fate of the traitors," police said.
North of the capital, gunmen killed an Iraqi police captain Saturday morning as he waited at a taxi stand in the suburb of Al-Sada near Baquba.
With violence hitting so many parts of Iraq, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has pleaded with other countries to help Iraq both militarily and financially.
Allawi seeks support
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in a largely empty room on Friday, Allawi said terrorists were seeking to "destroy the aspirations of our people and to destroy the physical infrastructure of Iraq and to stop the economic life in Iraq and to create a state of tension, panic, instability." (Full story)
The latest fighting comes just days after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that parts of Iraq might be excluded from elections set for January because they could be too dangerous for polling. (Full story)
However, on Friday, The Associated Press reported that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage appeared to contradict Rumsfeld, saying elections planned for January in Iraq must be "open to all citizens." (Full story)
Rumsfeld met with Allawi on Friday to talk about security as insurgents wage a campaign of suicide bombing, hostage-taking, beheading and other tactics.
Trying to put an upbeat face on the future of his young government Allawi has repeatedly vowed that the violence endured by Iraq will not deter the upcoming balloting.
He said that if elections were held today, they could be staged effectively in 15 of the country's 18 provinces, and cited South Africa, Sierra Leone and Indonesia as nations where elections were held despite violence.
"Today we are better off, you are better off, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein," Allawi said in his address to Congress on Thursday.
U.S. military announces deaths of 4 Marines, 1 soldier
Saturday, September 25, 2004 Posted: 1647 GMT (0047 HKT)
Residents stand among the ruins of houses in Falluja.
Image:
VIDEO
English city calls for mercy for hostage.
PLAY VIDEO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNN's Aaron Brown on insurgents and kidnappers.
PLAY VIDEO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For U.S. troops, strategy is simple: do their job, stay alive.
PLAY VIDEO
RELATED
Interactive: Quotes from Allawi address to Congress
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Hostage's brother accuses U.S.
• U.S. hostage confirmed killed
• Gallery: Beheadings as a tactic
• Q&A: War crippling Iraq's rebirth
QUICKVOTE
Should elections still go ahead in Iraq if they only cover three-quarters or four-fifths of the country?
Yes
No
VIEW RESULTS
SPECIAL REPORT
• Inside Iraq
• U.S. Reaction
• Global Impact
• CNN/Money: Rebuilding Iraq
• War in Iraq
• Special Report
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Iraq
United States
or Create your own
Manage alerts | What is this?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least nine Iraqis and five U.S. troops died in fighting and attacks by insurgents across Iraq, the U.S. and Iraqi military said Saturday, as hospitals counted the dead and U.S. warplanes hit targets in Falluja.
Four Marines, from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were killed Friday in three separate incidents while "conducting security and stability operations," in al Anbar province, which includes Falluja, the U.S. military announced Saturday.
Officials in Falluja counted at least seven dead and 12 wounded Iraqis brought to hospitals overnight, with reports of civilian casualties, including women and children.
U.S. warplanes on Saturday attacked targets in that city, which the U.S. military considers the center of a terrorist network and where clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents are frequent.
U.S. forces have been fighting suspected members of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network in Falluja, and warplanes targeted "a known terrorist meeting site," the U.S. military said.
On Saturday, insurgents attacked a van carrying new Iraqi National Guard recruits in western Baghdad. Seven recruits were killed and four recruits and an unknown number of civilians were wounded.
Witnesses said the attackers threw two hand grenades at the van and then shot at it with small arms.
Also, an improvised explosive device killed a Task Force Baghdad soldier in the capital on Saturday.
In Baghdad Friday, police reported an officer with the Iraqi Central Intelligence Service was assassinated after gunmen ambushed the officer's car in western Baghdad.
Before leaving the scene, the gunmen spray-painted a message on their target's car: "This is the fate of the traitors," police said.
North of the capital, gunmen killed an Iraqi police captain Saturday morning as he waited at a taxi stand in the suburb of Al-Sada near Baquba.
With violence hitting so many parts of Iraq, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has pleaded with other countries to help Iraq both militarily and financially.
Allawi seeks support
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in a largely empty room on Friday, Allawi said terrorists were seeking to "destroy the aspirations of our people and to destroy the physical infrastructure of Iraq and to stop the economic life in Iraq and to create a state of tension, panic, instability." (Full story)
The latest fighting comes just days after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that parts of Iraq might be excluded from elections set for January because they could be too dangerous for polling. (Full story)
However, on Friday, The Associated Press reported that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage appeared to contradict Rumsfeld, saying elections planned for January in Iraq must be "open to all citizens." (Full story)
Rumsfeld met with Allawi on Friday to talk about security as insurgents wage a campaign of suicide bombing, hostage-taking, beheading and other tactics.
Trying to put an upbeat face on the future of his young government Allawi has repeatedly vowed that the violence endured by Iraq will not deter the upcoming balloting.
He said that if elections were held today, they could be staged effectively in 15 of the country's 18 provinces, and cited South Africa, Sierra Leone and Indonesia as nations where elections were held despite violence.
"Today we are better off, you are better off, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein," Allawi said in his address to Congress on Thursday.